Does anyone combine...?

[Moggy in Manolos]

shavings and straw on here?

I was just thinking for cost reasons to change to straw, as recently rules have been changed on my yard and suddenly i have to bring in every night, not great

I was just wondering if anyone combines the two? does it work at all, i dont think it would, but it could be the best thing since sliced bread

Anyone?
Thanks

 

[only_me]

yep, one of the liveries on the yard has chopped straw and mixes it with shavings.

cheaper yes, hell on mucking out though!!

horse wouldnt be the cleanest, but bed is very very hard to muck out.

 

[Moggy in Manolos]

This was my thought, hell to muck out!
I do like shavings but with the climate as it is and a big credit card bill

i am just trying to be sensible, but i dont want to make my life hard

 

[rosencassie]

a friend of mine used to deep litter hers, allow a deep savings base and put straw on top. after a while she stopped buying shavings as the base kept for two months or so. very warm for the horse and easy to muck out. its hell when gutting though, backbreaking work

 

[imafluffybunny]

I buy shavings with chopped straw already in it, it is under £5 a bag and it is just like working with pure shavings.

 

[Happy2Hack]

I've just started using straw on top of flax. It's not too bad to muck out. I pick off the droppings with a glove first then scrape back the straw. Take out the wet patches from the flax (I don't like deep litter) then spread the flax back down and pat it all flat, then I spread the straw over the top.
I'm actually finding my usually messy mare to be cleaner on this method. The droppings stay on top of the bed instead of being squished about as they were on flax alone, and because the wee drains through the straw into the flax I'm not actually removing any straw as it's all clean!
I top up the base with half a bag of flax twice a week. Top up straw as neeeded which so far isn't much at all!

 

[greenhills]

YES YOU CAN MIX CHOPPED STRAW WITH SHAVINGS BEST TO USE CHOPPED OIL SEED RAPE STRAW ITS EASY TO MUCK OUT AND CLEAN

 

[ISHmad]

We have our horses on rubber mats with a layer of shavings on top and then a full straw bed. The shavings catch the wee and it's quick and easy to muck out. Far cheaper than being on pure shavings beds but without losing all the convenience of shavings either.

 

[Moggy in Manolos]

Many thanks all, maybe it would be a perfectly viable option, i did think maybe it would be difficult but you lot make it sound quite straight forward, i will have to look into sourcing straw now i think

Cheers